A cracking early picture of the band from an NME article that can be viewed on
Marms pics.
Thanks to Piotr Symanski of Poland for digging this one out for us.

The band started life in the early 1960s as Dean Ford and the
Gaylords, the
band were from the Springburn (Record Collector (RC No. 186) or
Shettleston
(RC126) or Springboig (our man on the spot) areas of Glasgow. Then
again, Thomas
'Nippy' McAleese ( stage name Dean
Ford AKA 'Wee Dan') hails from Coatbridge according to a 1999 Sunday
Mail
(Scotland) article. Here is an early shot of the band from a Beat
Instrumental
of 1965 courtesy of Peter Hull from from East Anglia who also supplied
scans of
a couple of the Gaylords singles - see the Discography link. button.
We've
actually got them now thanks to box set re-releases. The pic
shows top l-r: Pat Fairlie (guitar/6 string bass), Graham Knight
(bass), William 'Junior' Campbell (lead guitar). Bottom l-r: Raymond
Duffy
(drums) and Dean Ford (vocals). Knight had earlier replaced one Bill
Irving.

The band moved to London around 1966 and
Mr Duffy quit to be replaced by Alan Whitehead - a postman from Orpington. Duffy
guests on the Poets 'Wooden Spoon' and later joined Mathews Southern Comfort
and Gallagher and Lyle. He also gets a huge name-check on Junior Campbell's
solo album - see the CD/LP review page. The band shot at right shows Whitehead
in the centre. The band now changed their name to Marmalade - the manager's
idea - so hence the Robertson's jam Golly trademark on the bass drum. This pic
is from the Castle CD: the Marmalade Collection from 1998.

Often disparaged as the Scottish Tremeloes this was a grossly unfair tag.
Sure their CBS hits were in the poppy 'Everlasting Love' vein but they are
still hugely enjoyable today. The Decca material is much more mature. Listen to
it and decide for yourself. Lots of harmonies and poignant lyrics.

After 'Reflections', their biggest hit, and the follow up album Junior left
to take up a place at the Royal College of Music and was replaced by the
talented songwriter Hugh Nicholson from the Poets - see their webpage via the
rockingscots link. Whitehead was sacked at the end of 1970 at the instigation
of Nicholson and replaced by his mate from his former band, Dougie Henderson.
Ford was quoted at the time as saying Whitehead could be recognised around town
by the big footprint on his bum. In the notes to 2000's double CD covering the
Decca period Ford expresses regret at this handling of the affair. A nice touch.

The pic to the left is the back cover of
the 2nd Decca album 'Songs' and shows clockwise from top left: Ford, Henderson,
Knight, Fairlie and Nicholson. With Nicholson in the driving seat a sense of
fun returned to the band's sound with hits such as 'Cousin Norman' and
'Radancer' but they also wanted to be taken seriously as an albums band and the
second Decca offering 'Songs' is well worth having for numbers like 'Empty
Bottles and 'Bad Weather' alone. The latter was a Nicholson composition from
his days with the Poets. But Marmalade could not shift LPs and Nicholson left.
In an interview with the NME's Fred Dellar he said that the singles band tag
was just too strong to fight. We don't suppose that a lightweight name like
'Marmalade' helped either in that 'heavy' era. Nicholson went off to form Blue
with his old Poets mate Ian McMillan. See all about that on the Blue webpage
via the rockingscots link.

Before Nicholson got out, Pat Fairley left to manage
the publishing catalogue. He later worked in that line in the USA and now runs
a bar in LA called the Scotland Yard. We sent our special correspondent,
Karolyne K (from Ayr and Fulham naturally), on a mission to check it out.
After a long drive in the 90 degree LA heat our pub-spyette was looking forward
to a cool drink but disappointment quickly struck - seems the healthy-lifestyle
habit of lunchtime
drinking has not caught on yet in Canoga Park - the doors were firmly shut and
windows blanked out. So we can't confirm anything we've heard about the draught
Guinness, live bands and collection of memorabilia. See below for what it looks
like from the outside anyway.

Karolyne K adds a touch of class to Rockingscots
as well as the front of Pat's Fairley's LA pub.

A period of inactivity on the recording front ensued while Mike Japp, was
enlisted to replace Nicholson. New singles were issued 1n 1973 but failed to
chart. The NME described the new boogie sound of Marmalade as, "poor mans
Status Quo". Knight then left having recorded most of the 'Our House is
Rocking' LP' which seems to have been delayed for a year. Marmalade were at one
time touring as a three piece until Joe Breen once of the Dream Police came in
on bass. The hits failed to return and next thing there were two versions of
the Marmalade on the road, Knight having started up the 'Vintage
Marmalade' to knock out the old hits in contrast to the official band with
their heavier act. Eventually in '75 Dean Left to go solo and Knight was left
the name and a clear field.

By January 1976 the band, consisting of Knight, Whitehead again, and Sandy
Newman, once of the well known (in Scotland anyway) Chris McClure Section, were back
in the charts with 'Falling Apart at the Seams'. Sandy is at the top right of
this 1970 pic of Chris's outfit. We'd endorse the tailor in the ad too. Also in
this version of Marmalade was Charlie Smith ex drummer of Dream Police and the
Poets. However, here he was on guitar. We recall he used to come out from behind
his kit in his Dream Police days to do a version of Joni Mitchell's Carrie on
acoustic guitar. He must have preferred drumming to strumming for the following
year saw him on a drum stool again in Blue and Garth Watt-Roy took his place
for the LP released on the strength of the 'Seams' hit.

For 1978's LP '..doing it for you', Knight and Newman were joined by Ian
Withington, guitar, and Stu Williamson , drums. By 1980, Charlie Smith was back
with Alan Holmes (guitar) on the US only album 'Marmalade'.

The line up has varied from time-to-time over the years since but Newman,
Knight and associates are still operating today. Alan Whitehead went into nightclub ownership.
He might still have Secrets in Glenthorne Road, London W6. Some of his lap dancers are shown below
from the frontpage of a local newspaper reporting that his licence was being
challenged again. Entry and beers are very reasonably priced (we're told). He
did manage two, yes two, TV documentaries in 1999 about his club. While he was
looking his age his latest fiance was well fit.

Left is a Dean Ford in 1999 from a Sunday
mail article from that year. He looks fairly well preserved all things
considered. Dean's 1975 LP is reviewed in the 'LP & CD reviews' link. In
1976 and 1978 Dean had a fling with Blue and he is on the Alan Parsons
Project's 1978 'Pyramid' LP. Later he moved to LA and was running a chauffeured
limo service there. We've heard from him - he says he has moved to the New York
area and is still writing and has not given up the notion of a return to the
music scene one day. We hope he does. Last heard of recording a single
with the remnants of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band in 1991 - and looking fit
and healthy.

The pic of Junior Campbell is from the back of his solo album 'Second Time
Around'. See the 'LP & CD Reviews' link. After a couple of
decent singles, his solo career went flat. He wrote a few numbers for the 1980
US only 'Marmalade' LP and did the theme music to the Thomas the Tank Engine
kiddies TV series. Junior made an unwitting comeback in the music press in the
early 90s when the NME used a different picture of him every week beside a
spoof column from a supposedly thick pundit on life's little ironies. Why him?
Well he does have a slight cast in one eye. Perhaps they picked up on that for
some reason. Whatever, we hope he got paid. He's still involved in the music
business to some extent from what we can gather. Good luck to you anyway
Junior.

The Scandals!
Before 'Radancer' hit the charts Alan Whitehead, a bit skint and doubtless
suitably miffed at his dismissal, sold a story to the English Sunday papers
about shennanigans with groupies during his tenure of the drum stool.
Apparently, one of the photographs featured himself naked except for a sock and
that wasn't on a foot. Such poses have since become commonplace with similar
pics released for publicity purposes by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Moby
(Dick?). Good to see the Marms were well ahead of their time. However, the
story only enhanced the band's reputation and the lyric, "Dance, dance,
read your Sunday papers", cheekily appeared on the fade out of 'Radancer'.
Later, members of the three piece Marmalade were charged with cannabis
possession during a tour of South Africa. They got off. Pat Fairley's comments
at the time was that the boys were all single or divorced and if they wanted to
smoke a bit of grass in a foreign country then where was the harm. Where
indeed? The pic below, published in the 1999 Sunday Mail article shows the
three piece Marmalade of Ford, Japp and Henderson.

The Jimi Hendrix connection: (i)
In late 1967 the Marmalade were bottom of the
bill on a package tour featuring Jimi Hendrix (actually it might have
been a different package tour; maybe the Move & Pink Floyd one) -
so ignore this as solid evidence. Anyway, all that we can recall
from the
one line review in the NME was that Dean sang barefoot. Well it was
good
publicity for Sandy Shaw so why not for our boys who would of course
try anything
to get noticed in those days. (ii) a small pic on the notes to the
'Definitive Collection' CD shows Dean with feet bared and wearing a poncho! (iii) The
same pic shows Junior with Hendrix perm and a droopy moustache. (iv) Hendrix apparently declared that 'I see the Rain' was his favourite record of 1967 - perhaps
because it has a 'Hey Joe'-ish riff. (v) The band also did a great cover of 'Hey
Joe' on their debut album. (vi) Junior plays guitar left handed. (vii) and with conventional
stringing - just plays everything upside down. But we are sure he was doing
this before meeting Hendrix!

To finish with here are a couple more pics from Peter Hull's collection.
Autographed photo above and a backstage shot from a 1967 gig in Dereham,
Norfolk. The fan far left is another Peter and the girl is Mr Hull's then
girlfriend Janet. Lucky you Pete. From his raised eyebrow and tapping of his
watch Pat Fairley seems to be concerned about the time Pete is taking to get
his snap.

Hope you enjoyed this scroll through the Marmalade's history. Check out
their discography and LP/CD reviews or try strumming and humming some Marmalade
hits via the links at the top. Also, take a look via the links above for
Poets/Trash/Cody and Blue among others. If you have any questions on
Marmalade or Blue etc send us an e-mail. Obladilada.

If you want to swap Marmalade videos contact Paul Hanlon who has plenty
including concert material at: paul.hanlon7@ntlworld.com

Finally, thanks to Martin Payne of Making Time for linking us to
his site. Do check out all the other bands on Making Time by clicking on the
logo here.
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